Nadal wins Prague charity poker event

Top-ranked tennis star Rafael Nadal saw off top poker player to win the $137,000 charity poker tournament in Prague.

Sat Dec 14 2013 11:42:33 GMT+0000

Nadal beat the top-ranked poker player as well as past football players Ronaldo and Shevchenko [Getty Images]

Rafael Nadal showed he was not tired of dethroning world number one players when he saw off Daniel Negreanu to win a charity poker tournament in Prague.

The 100,000-euro ($137,000) tournament was the first-ever live poker event for the 27-year-old Spaniard, who had stripped Serbia's Novak Djokovic of the world's top spot in tennis this year.

Nadal has been a fervent poker player since a knee injury sidelined him from his day job last year, but had so far only played in online poker tournaments.

"I had fun, had a great experience here playing with friends, playing for a good cause, for charity," Nadal said.

"The next thing I know is that tomorrow morning I will be on court at 9am practicing tennis."

Besides Negreanu, the world number one poker player, Nadal beat Italian downhill star Alberto Tomba, past football legends Ronaldo and Andriy Shevchenko, and finally Dutch field hockey champion Fatima Moreira de Melo in the heads-up.

"My life is still tennis, I just have fun playing poker.

"I am learning, but at the same time I try to be competitive.

"Like tennis, poker is a competition, you need to control your emotions, you need to be focused all the time.

"You need to have self-control, you have to wait for your moment."

Nadal made a blistering return to tennis since his career-threatening knee injury, winning 10 titles - including the French and US Opens - and closing out the 2013 season at the top spot of ATP rankings.